Why doesn’t AVPlayer / AVFoundation support MPEG-DASH (MPD)? Any public rationale?

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Created 2d

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Hi,

I understand that AVPlayer/AVFoundation doesn’t natively play MPEG-DASH manifests (.mpd) today, while HLS is supported and widely documented by Apple. I’m not asking for roadmap commitments, but I’d like to understand whether there is any publicly documented rationale for not supporting DASH/MPD in AVFoundation (e.g., technical constraints, platform integration, DRM ecosystem, power/performance considerations, etc.).

Questions: Is there any Apple statement / documentation explaining why DASH (MPD) isn’t supported in AVFoundation? Is Apple’s recommended approach still “provide HLS for Apple clients” (potentially sharing CMAF segments and generating separate manifests)? If there’s no public rationale, is filing Feedback Assistant the best channel for requesting MPD playback support?

Thanks!

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Answer 1

RogerAtApple OP

1d

From a features point of view DASH is largely duplicative of HLS. The media team at Apple has chosen to focus their engineering time and resources on improving HLS and addressing the needs of content partners and other participants in the HLS ecosystem.

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